1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the manufacture of a flexible and breathable matte finish glove.
2. Discussion of the Background
Gloves can provide important protection to the hands in many industrial or household tasks. Often such tasks are performed in fluid environments where not only protection from such materials as water, aqueous solutions of various degrees of alkalinity or acidity, oil, gasoline or similar materials is required, but also an ability to grip and securely hold or maneuver an object is necessary. For such purposes, the gloves should be comfortable, flexible, provide breathability and provide a grip surface capable of secure grip even when exposed to materials having lubricity which would adversely affect an ability to securely grip an object.
Johnson (U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,940) describes methods for preparing slip resistant articles such as work gloves by laminating a foamed material to a substrate. The foamed material may be polyurethane, polyvinyl chloride, acrylonitrile, natural rubber or synthetic rubber and the level of foam is adjusted according to the required degree of abrasion resistance.
Watanabe (U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,072) describes a method for making a porous hand covering by coating a fabric glove base with a foamed rubber or resin and subjecting the foam coated glove base to sufficiently reduced pressure to cause bursting of the foam bubbles to form a coating surface with a plurality of depressions.
Heeter et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,729) describes a method and apparatus for producing a breathable coated fabric. The method includes coating a fabric substrate with a resin then opening pores in the resin by directing a flow of air through the fabric substrate and resin coating.
Yamashita et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,990) describes a method to produce a rubber glove by sequentially performing the step of immersing a glove mold in a coagulating synthetic rubber latex containing synthetic rubber in latex form, thermally expandable microcapsules, and a rubber coagulant to form a coagulant-containing synthetic rubber film on the surface of the glove mould; the step of immersing the glove mold in rubber-incorporating latex to form a gelled rubber layer; the step of heating a rubber laminate composed of the synthetic rubber film and the gelled rubber layer to vulcanize the rubber laminate; and the step of turning the vulcanized rubber laminate inside out, and removing it from the glove mold.
Borreani et al. (U.S. 2002/0076503) describes a clothing article such as a glove characterized in that: the textile support receives an adherence primer in the form of an aqueous calcium nitrate; the textile support with the adherence primer is subjected, entirely or partially, to a coating based on a foamed aqueous polymer; the foamed aqueous polymer only appears on the support outer part without going through the mesh so as not to produce contact with the corresponding part of the body.
Dillard et al. (U.S. 2004/0221364) describes methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for providing a foam glove, including coating a textile shell with a foamed polymeric coating that is supported in part by the surface of the textile shell. Sufficient amount of air is mixed with the base polymer to lower the density of the base polymer to between about 10 to 50% of the original density of the base polymer.
Flather et al. (U.S. 2005/0035493) describes a glove having a textured surface or textured foam coating produced by embedding a layer of discrete particles, such as salt, into a previously formed liquid layer, gelling or curing the layer and dissolving the discrete particles to leave a textured or textured foamed surface.
Thompson et al. (U.S. 2007/0204381) describes a lightweight thin flexible latex glove article having a polymeric latex coating that penetrates the front portion of a knitted liner half way or more through the liner thickness and for at least a portion of the knitted liner, not penetrating the entire thickness. For example, the liner can be knitted using an 18 gauge needle with 70 to 221 denier nylon 66 multi-filament yarn. The polymer latex coating can be 0.75 to 1.25 times the thickness of the knitted liner. The polymer latex coating may be foamed with 5 to 50 vol % air content. Open celled foamed latex coating may be coated with a dispersion of fluorochemical dispersion to prevent liquid permeation into the glove. The process can include steps to gel the latex emulsion at interstices of the yarn to prevent further penetration of the emulsion into the liner.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a facile and economical method to manufacture a comfortable, breathable and flexible matte finish glove providing protection from both aqueous and oil environments, and having improved water and oil grip.